Photo: Fraser Kerr

Live Review: Bowling For Soup – Crowdsurf The UK Tour – O2 Academy Brixton

Bowling For Soup returned to the O2 Academy Brixton however they were a member short! The ‘Crowdsurf The UK’ tour kicked off as normal however due to illness, drummer Garry Wiseman returned to the states on doctor’s orders. Despite being a member down, the band pushed on adapting their set each night to still put on a rock show for the fans. The final night of the tour was the show in Brixton and here’s what went down!

Opening the night’s entertainment was The Dollyrots. A perky pop-punk band that has been making quite the impression on fans of the genre as of late. The set was full of energy and wit with tracks such as ‘My Best Friend’s Hot’, ‘Twist Me To The Left’ and ‘City Of Angels’ giving the early arriving fans their angsty fix. It was clear the band were excited to be in London because as the set went on, they just seemed to get more and more confident. By the time the final track ‘Because I’m Awesome’ dropped, they had the majority of the room behind them and were dancing along to the track’s chaotic beat.

Photo: Fraser Kerr

The next band to take the stage was Lit. Unsurprisingly, the crowd were ecstatic for these guys and right from the off, the room was bouncing along to ‘Four’. As for the set, it was a nice mix of the band’s more iconic material and newer releases to the point of ‘Mouth Shut’ getting a live debut at the show. As you would expect, there was one song on the majority of the crowd’s minds during their performance and once ‘My Own Worst Enemy’ dropped, the entire building was singing it back to the band.

Due to the unconventional situation the band found themselves in, Jaret Reddick opened the show with an acoustic rendition of ‘Turbulence’ as well as wished Garry a speedy recovery and doing the band’s pre-show ritual on stage for the first time ever. A full rock show is what the band wanted to put on for the London crowd and that is exactly what they did. With the help of multiple drummers filling in, the entire night was a full band performance from this point starting off with ‘My Hometown’. As you would expect, the set was jam-packed with some of the band’s biggest songs such as ‘Highschool Never Ends’ as well as a few new tracks off their new album like ‘I Wanna Be Brad Pitt’ and ‘Alexa Bliss’.

Considering the amount of hits Bowling For Soup has released over the years, nothing quite hits better than the band performing the Phineas And Ferb theme song! Maybe it’s my nostalgia kicking in, however, I will never get tired of hearing that one live. As the show went on we were treated to seeing Jaret behind the drums during ‘Ohio (Come Back To Texas)’ before the band finished the night off with ‘Almost’ followed by both ‘1985’ and ‘Girl All The Bad Guys Want’.

Considering the way the band had admitted to being scared to do the shows with a member missing, I have to say they smashed it. The help they enlisted proved to do the job and it made for one hell of a punk rock show. I’d find it hard to believe any fan left the show feeling short-changed as everywhere I looked at the end, all I could see were smiles. Bravo Bowling For Soup.